High school student Michael Padilla has big dreams to help his Chicago neighborhood, and even with his father as a high-ranking gang member, he says he’s on the right path.

“If I told him I was going to join a gang, he would do everything in his power to stop me,” Padilla said. “He knows that I can be successful.”

Padilla is an ambassador to the Chicago Ideas Week (CIW) YOU(th) Program with aspirations to earn a bachelor’s degree in human resource management and a master’s degree in special education.

“I grew up there and I know that I could help a lot of people in the neighborhood…I believe I really can change certain things that go on there,” he said.

Other CIW YOU(th) participants have similar stories of strength, success and perseverance so vivid that they should be made into works of art.

And that’s just what will happen come October when CIW Artist in Residence Hebru Brantley displays about 20 sculptures representing their childhoods in different Chicago neighborhoods. The art will be featured near NBC’s plaza on Michigan Avenue to create an understanding of diverse upbringings.

The CIW YOU(th) program empowers 450 at-risk students from Chicago public high schools by connecting them with positive role models, influential leaders and special events. Nine of CIW YOU(th)’s ambassadors filed into the CIW office Wednesday to share their stories with Brantley, who will customize his signature “Flyboy” characters into 5-foot tall personalized works of art.

These cartoonish superhero “Flyboys” appear in many of Brantley’s works and are inspired by the Tuskegee Airmen, a platoon of African-American pilots who fought in World War II. He said the custom CIW YOU(th) creations will celebrate the teens’ spirits and strength to overcome socioeconomic obstacles and volatile environments. Each statue will represent a different neighborhood.

“I’ll be taking blurbs, or little things that you said, and adding that on to different placards for each statue that represent each area,” 31-year-old Brantley told the teens. “In essence, the statues will represent you guys, your friends and your peers that you are speaking for.” 

Stepping away from his usual mediums of paint and plaster, Brantley played the role of a reporter for about two hours Wednesday night, interviewing each ambassador about their childhood, education and where they see themselves in a few years.

Some ambassadors told stories of how they rarely go outside—unless it’s to get to school—because of the high crime rate in their neighborhoods. In just one month, there were 82 reports of violent crime –such as robbery, homicide and sexual assault—in the South Side’s Englewood neighborhood, compared to just 21 reports in the North Side neighborhood of Uptown.

“I think I’m in the worst neighborhood in Chicago,” said 16-year-old Destiny Hicks, a junior at Fenger High School in South Side neighborhood of Roseland. “There’s not a day that goes by where you don’t hear an ambulance or police sirens.”

She said she found inspiration in EMBARC, nonprofit extracurricular program created by CIW Co-op member Imran Kahn that gives students from isolated neighborhoods life experiences throughout Chicago. She said the program helped her realize there was more to the city than what was in her four-block radius.  

Hicks said students need more programs like that to encourage them to step outside their comfort zones and to make them realize they have endless options – not just resorting to violence.

Joseph Jones, a 16-year-old at Harper High School in West Englewood, said he used to be part of a gang – but was lucky enough to get out.

He said when he is on the South Side people still ask him, “Who are you?”- a veiled threat as they try to find out which gang he is affiliated with. Because gang activity creates divisions between blocks, some residents are overly protective of their neighborhood. Jones said he always tries to travel in a group, otherwise he’d find himself in danger.

“The violence] is not normal,” Jones said. “Everybody knows what’s right and what’s wrong.”

Jones said he doesn’t want children to become victims of the culture of violence in his community. He wants to inspire people with engaging activities so they won’t resort to guns, gangs and drugs. After he earns his college degree (he has his sights set on Cornell University or Howard University in Washington, D.C.) he said he will come back to Englewood and help become a safe place for everyone.

“If you run from the problem and run where you’re from…it’s not going to solve the problem,” he said. “It’s not going to change anything. You owe it to your community to go back and fix the problem.”

Rachel Graham, the director of the CIW YOU(th) program, said she knows the teens are going to do amazing things with their lives.

“These kids are going to be the ones to change Chicago—no question in my mind,” she said.

The CIW YOU(th) kick-off event will take place Sept. 25 at the Museum of Science and Industry. In the meantime, stay tuned to the Ideasphere for updates on Hebru’s work and the YOU(th) program, and to get involved contact youth@chicagoideas.com. 

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Written by: Sophia Coleman

Photography by: Kathleen Virginia Photography

Hebru Brantley photo provided by: Hebru Brantley